RARA-AVIS: ICE HARVEST

From: Ron Clinton ( clinton65@worldnet.att.net)
Date: 22 Mar 2002


From: "Terrill Lankford" < lankford2000@earthlink.net>
> Scott Phillips' Charlie Arglist from THE ICE HARVEST. Actually if I could
> nominate an ensemble of hard boiled characters this book would come close
to
> topping the list.

I thought this book was a bit overrated, for the most part. While the characters were indeed quite intriguing and the ending had a terrific macabre touch, I felt the book meandered quite a bit into directionless and meaningless travelings by its main character and lacked a true narrative plot thrust. While even some of the finest noir works display this type of character-intense plotting (Goodis comes to mind), they usually have a substantial plotting framework as well; THE ICE HARVEST lacked this framework, I felt.

Having said that, I (believe it or not) did enjoy the book and look forward to his new novel that is I believe due out sometime this year (according to the blurb on the chapter tease in the tpb version of THE ICE HARVEST).

But not as much as Jason Starr's new one, due out later this year from Vintage. Now *that's* narrative thrust and plotting framework (with no sacrifice in character development, either)!

Ron Clinton

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